“Very well,” she says.
The knowing look in her eyes makes my cheeks burn. Is she aware of how good it feels to be fed on? Does she sense my shameful fascination with it?
She’s sitting elegantly on her knees, her thighs parted. The fire crackles in the silence. Its warm light flickers across her face, illuminating the sweat and ash, casting moving shadows under her eyes.
I break our gaze, unwilling to let her see the conflicting feelings inside me.
Her outstretched hands hover, waiting for me to take them.
I can do this. It’s the first step to leaving this mess behind and getting on with my life.
I walk over on unsteady legs.
“Brave girl,” she says.
“You’re insufferable,” I grumble.
“And you’re stuck with me, sweetheart.”
I kneel in front of her, trying not to think about how I’m offering my life force to a murderous witch.
Time to feed the monster I’ve unleashed.
5
Julia
Hannahsinkstoherknees before me, offering her essence despite knowing how easily I could destroy her.
What a strange, reckless girl. In spite of her obvious terror, she doesn’t waver. There’s steel beneath that soft exterior, unexpected and intriguing. When was the last time someone surprised me?
In all my years of feeding, through hundreds of victims across decades of hunting, they all responded the same way: begging, bargaining, trying to escape. They’ve offered me money, possessions, livestock, loved ones…anything but themselves.
But Hannah? She chose self-sacrifice to protect strangers.
Not since Charlotte has anyone willingly given themselves to me. But unlike Charlotte, Hannah will have to stay alive. At least until we’re unbound.
The memory of Charlotte’s last moments tries to surface—her trembling body, the adoration in her eyes, and then that absolute, final stillness—but I shove it down. Now’s not the time to think about her.
With our knees almost touching, I shake loose my shoulders, ready to begin.
The crackle of settling logs fills the silence, and the scent of smoke and something sweet hovers between us. The firelight dances over the crease between her eyebrows, the determined set of her jaw, and her narrowed blue eyes.
I can’t help it: my lips curl into a satisfied grin.
Oh, Rebecca. You put a binding spell on me to weaken me and force me into dependency, and instead, you’ve handed me a girl who willingly offers herself to me.
The irony is delicious. I look forward to watching her realize how badly her plan failed. How she gifted me with a source of power that I don’t have to hunt for. Granted, I will have to feed on her energy frequently since I cannot fully drain her, but that won’t be a problem given that we’re bound.
“What do I need to do?” Hannah asks.
I flex my fingers, my gnawing hunger making me desperate to grab her. “Feeding requires physical contact with the victim.”
“I understand that much,” she says coldly. She smooths her hair, which is undone and tangled from when I knotted my fingers in it.
I wiggle my fingers, still waiting for her to place her hands in mine. “A simple skin-contact ritual will suffice.”
The pinch in her brow tells me she’s wondering what other kinds of rituals there are. But there’s no sense in scaring her off.
